Pretty When You Cry
by DiscoLemonadeDiva
Summary: Bella and Edward's wedding doesn't go according to plan. BxE, Bx?,Ex?.


P R E T T Y W H E N Y O U C R Y  
S U M M A R Y: Bella and Edward's wedding doesn't go according to plan. BxE, Bx?, Ex?. This has been on my laptop forever, it isn't perfect and I might revise it later, but it was burned a hole into my computer.

W A R N I N G: C R A C K (I S H) F I C

E P O V

"If anyone has a reason why these two shall not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace." The Minister says. He's looking around for some clichéd movie moment in which one of our exes will jump up, waving their hands frantically as if the world will surely end if they cannot in fact speak now. As if holding their peace and grinning and bearing it would mean hell freezing over.

In fact, he's thinking how in the twenty three years he's been binding people together, not a single person has ever stepped up with a reason. He's hoping today will be different.

He's 54 and the most interesting thing about him is that he consumes a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios every day for breakfast.

It's in this brief pause, as the minister glances around at Bella and I, glances at the family members and friends gathered here today to witness our holy union, glances at the moon the sun and the starts, that he finally gets what he wants.

Tanya Denali.

Even though I invited her to the wedding, she is the last person I expected to come to my wedding.

Her thoughts, which are too jumbled for me to get a proper read on them, are broadcasting at me. Like an old TV full of static and snow. The picture isn't clear, but it's shoving itself down your throat.

I concentrate on her mind. Move the antennae to clear up the picture.

Bella. Bella. Bella.

Her thoughts are all Bella Swan. A hodgepodge of vampire clear images, as if she's met my beloved before, and dull, human like flashes, play on The Tanya Network. They're her interpretation of unrelated events strung together in loop that plays through her mind constantly. For a brief moment I wonder if this is a disguise. If she's attempting to block me by throwing my past indiscretions in my face.

Me almost eating Bella. James almost eating Bella. Me leaving Bella in the woods. Jasper almost eating Bella. Laurent almost eating Bella. The Volturi almost eating Bella. Victoria almost eating Bella.

I glean enough from Jasper to catch the undying rage and disbelief coloring her mood, before he starts reciting a civil war book from memory.

I glance at Alice, who has the smug smile on her face that only someone who is in tune with fate can sport. Her lips are curled back in something of snarl when she sees that I am staring at her. She stops translating the Art of War into Mandarin and begins to sing Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl." I try to delve deeper into her mind, past all the lyrics and into the region storing the reason for that grin I recall earlier. She flashes me more white teeth and sings so loud that my ears would be popping if I was still human.

All of this happens in seconds, and by the time my eyes are on Tanya again, she is drawing to a stop near me and my beloved. The Minister's eyes are about to fall out of his head.

Tanya is every bit as beautiful as Rosalie, but downplays this with neutral shades and more conservative (by Rosalie's standards) clothing. Today however, she is not downplaying anything. Bright red lipstick is painted across full lips, deep blush exaggerates cheek bones, black glasses conceal golden eyes. A red dress with a plunging neckline adorns her perfect body.

Tanya is the last person I expected to crash my wedding. I'd been keeping a close watch on Jacob, who had fallen in love with Bella during my departure. But Tanya? She hadn't been a blip on the metaphorical radar.

Tanya takes off her glasses with a sigh. The bags under her eyes are far more pronounced than usual. She hasn't hunted for weeks on end. She runs her fingers through windblown hair.

I use these seconds to peer over at Alice, who shrugs and smirks at me with this innocent expression; as if she hadn't seen Tanya's decision to crash my wedding. I glare at her. She offers me a toothy smile that looks more like a snarl.

I take the time to garner the thoughts of everyone else. Most people are shocked. Charlie is wishing that he brought his gun. He is gripping the chair with so much pressure it is close to snapping under his vice. Reneé is debating the merits of pouring her merlot on the tramp. Her words, not mine. Reneé decides against this. It is a very expensive merlot. Phil is too busy ogling her ass to notice much of anything else.

Confusion colors the thoughts of my family members, and most other people at the service. They glance at each other in puzzlement. Most people have no clue who Tanya is. She has never been to Forks, WA. At least not in this century.

Alice's eyes turn glassy, and she hums in approval of whatever she has seen. I don't even try to delve deeper into her mind. The pop song is loud enough without attempting a more in-depth look into what my sister has seen.

Tanya clears her throat drawing everyone's attention from each other.

"You can't get married," she says. Eliciting gasps from those in attendance. Alice prizes another toothy grin. Jasper smiles a lopsided grin at his wife.

"These violent delights," she says. "Have violent ends."

I flash back to watching Romeo and Juliet with Bella. So does Tanya. Jasper's thoughts tell me she's positively livid.

"People shouldn't just get married because they are afraid of what other people will think if they don't. Marriage shouldn't be a business deal." She sighs and runs a hand through her shaking head.

"God, I don't know how to do this," she blows out a breath of unnecessary air. This is the first time I have ever seen Tanya nervous.

She's physically 21 and the most interesting thing about her is that she's a succubus.

Sort of.

In theory.

In practice.

Tanya, Kate and Irina had a nasty habit of taking humans home in order to "feed and fuck" them. The Denali sisters call them fangbangers. The feeding part of the equation was eradicated when they joined Carmen and Eleazer. The fucking part was not.

"You don't love each other. You love the idea of each other," she wipes at phantom tears. Vampire's don't shed tears.

"Guilt shouldn't be what binds two people together," she's blubbering. Vampire's don't blubber.

"I'm completely and utterly in love with you, and the person you're about to marry is not," she's a very good actress.

The pieces are not fitting together. The memories. Her speech. Tanya and I had never shared any life defining moments. And while there was an attraction, the last time I saw her in Alaska, her feelings were not so in depth as she describes to the people gathered here.

In concentrating so hard on Tanya's unexpected appearance, I have failed to check to see how Bella is handling Tanya's presence. While I mull this over, Tanya leans over, and her mouth hovers over Bella's long slender neck.

"You weren't there," Bella whispers quietly. She's blinking violently, traitor tears threating to fall. "Victoria, she wanted to kill me and you weren't there."

Tanya's planting open mouth kisses on Bella's neck. One hand moving to wipe a lone tear as it falls down Bella's cheek, the other hand wrapping around Bella's back and toying with the fabric of her dress.

The people of Forks, unlike the majority of Washington State, are hardcore Republicans. The humans engage themselves in a very competitive fly catching contest.

_You're no good for her._

I know.

_You shouldn't have come back. She doesn't love you._

Oh, but she does, I want to scream at Tanya. Gripping her shoulders tight between my palms, shaking until it sinks in. Bella loves me.

And it's like Tanya's the mind reader, for she replies with a single thought she brings into question the entirety of my feelings for Bella. _But is she IN love you?_

_She's with you out of guilt._ She explains. _She moved on, with a girl no less, and you didn't. And now she feels guilty._

And this is when she strikes. Those memories she hid earlier behind my failings with Bella hit me full force.

There is one in particular that is worse than the venom.

_Bella, her body arched in laughter suddenly freezes._

"_I know that Edward left you there broken, and that he wanted you to live a normal human life, but once you're introduced into this world, there is no out."_

_She doesn't flinch at my name here, though earlier attempts, if Tanya is to be trusted not to show me false images, had proceeded to send Bella into a quivering ball of nerves. Grasping her arms to her body, breathing heavily, as if she was falling apart and her arms where the only thing keeping her whole. I don't like this Bella._

_This Bella is happier than I have ever seen her, with Tanya Denali of all people._

When their faces come together and their lips entwine, I tune out Tanya Denali.

Tanya Denali and Bella Swan.

How the fuck did this happen?

Alice is full on beaming, and Jasper, by defect, is just as giddy.

My family is just sympathetic. Even Rosalie Hale, whose love for Emmett is rivaled only by her love for herself, is offering me looks of pity.

The vampire's in attendance radiate amusement. The human one's do not.

Bella Swan, my fiancée. She's not my intended anymore.

Tanya Denali sweeps my love's legs from beneath her, holding them in one hand and Bella's torso in the other.

I watch as they embrace, I watch the love that they share.

Tanya Denali plants one last kiss onto her cheek, before pirouetting away from me with Bella Swan in her arms.

She's 19 and the most interesting thing about her is that she's a human in love with a vampire. A vampire that isn't me.


End file.
